Yoko Ono Wins Copyright Case Over John Lennon Footage

Rare, little seen footage of John Lennon from 1970  is going to remain just that – rare, and most likely never to be seen by a general public. A federal judge has ruled that Yoko Ono is the rightful copyright holder of rare, intimate footage showing John Lennon and his family in London in 1970.

According to the AP, U.S. District Court Judge Rya W. Zobel refused to reinstate a copyright-infringement lawsuit filed by a Lawrence, Mass.-based company against Lennon’s widow and the broker who sold her the tapes.

World Wide Video LLC sued Ono in March 2008. The company accused her of copyright infringement and wrongfully interfering with personal property.

Ono countersued, saying she is the rightful owner and that World Wide Video has no rights to the material. Ono wants to keep the material private.

The footage in question is 10 hours of film shot at Lennon’s England estate in February 1970 by Anthony Cox, Ono’s husband before her marriage to Lennon in 1969. It shows Lennon hunched over a piano, smoking marijuana and joking about putting LSD in President Richard Nixon’s tea. It has never been shown publicly in its entirety.

The AP report says World Wide Video claimed it owns the raw footage.

The company produced a two-hour documentary, “3 Days in the Life,” using the footage, and planned to show it at a private school in Maine in 2007. The screening was scrapped after the company received a stop order from Ono’s lawyers. The producers had previously shown excerpts from the film four times.

In court documents, Ono said she had a “clear and absolute” agreement with Cox when he shot the footage that it would never be “commercially exhibited, commercially exploited or released.”

The judge will issue the final order in the copyright infringement case after ruling on damages against Pagola, World Wide Video’s attorney Joseph T. Doyle Jr. said.